HAMBURG, Germany — Angela Merkel knew the G20 summit would be tough. Finding consensus among the world’s leading economies across an agenda spanning terror to trade was never going to be simple.

Yet even the ever-cautious German chancellor couldn’t have prepared for the slow-burning fiasco that dominated the summit’s opening day, as protesters blocked streets and clashed with police across the city.

As Merkel tried to coax President Donald Trump into embracing the principles of free trade and back off his hard line on climate policy, his wife Melania was trapped in her quarters, unable to depart for hours as violence swept parts of the city.

Though it remained quiet within the fortified exhibition halls where the summit is taking place, columns of black smoke blotting the city’s skyline offered a constant reminder of the seething tensions outside. Across Hamburg, marauding activists set cars alight and clashed with police, leaving nearly 200 officers injured.

Merkel chose this thriving port city as the venue for the summit because it embodies how Germany wants the world to see it: diverse, open and entrepreneurial.

Yet since the summit began, the liberal city-state resembles a police-state. Its wide avenues are mostly deserted except for riot police and protesters. The sounds of sirens fill the air as tank-like water cannons rumble through downtown.

The frivolity Hamburg is famous for has been replaced by fear.

For Merkel, who is in the midst of an election campaign, the G20 was supposed to be a grand stage to put her diplomatic acumen on display. Instead, it’s turning into a horror show.

Inside the summit, Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin held their own get-together, skipping most of the discussion on climate change. Though Merkel said she welcomed the meeting between the two, it shifted attention away from her agenda.

That may have been a blessing in disguise. By the end of the day, Merkel had little positive news. While the gathering was in agreement over measures to fight terrorism, the U.S. remained isolated on key points. As expected, Trump’s “America First” stance on trade and climate complicated Merkel’s efforts to build a consensus in the group, which represents 80 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.

Stepping in front of the cameras after a day of back-to-back meetings, Merkel, the day’s stress written across her face, said she wasn’t going to “beat around the bush.”

In the meantime, the leaders retired for a bit of culture. After trading the red blazer she wore earlier in the day for a pink one, Merkel greeted her guests at the Elbphilharmonie, a massive glass concert hall overlooking the city’s harbor.

As the dignitaries took in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, violence raged outside. A policeman fired off a warning shot after coming under attack.

One German broadcaster carried live images of the riots on a split screen across from footage of the concert. For Merkel, who sat with closed eyes for part of the performance, the juxtaposition couldn’t have been worse.

Even if the German leader manages to build a consensus on Saturday that includes the U.S., it will be difficult for her to convince Germans that the summit was anything but a costly exercise in futility.

Mentar

The delegates are safe, they always were.

This is all about the “black block” anarchists who have their anticapitalist rhetoric purely as pretext to “justify” their rioting and looting. Hamburg’s senator for the interior is from the SPD, and he is the one calling the shots. To give you an idea: Obviously he is content to let several hundred anarchists loot and burn an entire shopping district (Schanzenviertel), because at least they’re not rioting in the rest of the city while they are fenced in there. Why the “black block” hasn’t been apprehended? You tell me.

Posted on 7/7/17 | 11:09 PM CET

pexit

Seems that law and order is going very well as usual in IV Reich…

But you have to understand that the German’s police was not in mood they were a little tired after a very nice party as declared by the local media “the officers threw a wild party at their temporary lodgings, with some seen having sex in public, urinating in a group against a fence and strip-dancing with weapons”…

the German’s police confirmed and said “Our police chiefs were told that our hundred-strong back-up force to Hamburg have been prematurely released from duty. The reason was misconduct at their accommodation on site”…

Posted on 7/7/17 | 11:37 PM CET

croc

Was it not eastern europe that was supposed to be nationalistic, undemocmocraticm, unwestern, backward and dangerous?

Posted on 7/7/17 | 11:47 PM CET

Filippo

Very good. The “temporarily overperforming country” is slowly – not so slowly, actually – going back to its proper regional middle power size. Of course, the others regional middle power size countries will hardly forget how it has been behaving in the latest years. There’s a little reckoning to do, folks, it won’t be fun

Posted on 7/8/17 | 12:36 AM CET

Jay

When were there not protests at the G-8 (or whatever number is in vogue) Summits?

Posted on 7/8/17 | 2:51 AM CET

Judith Weller

This G20 could be viewed as a failure. Why didn;t Merkel hold this meeting in some place more inaccessible to protesters. Why wasn’t the army called in — oh I forgot, Germany doesn’t have a real army with real weapons.

Pictures of the rioting, looting and burning are what is dominating US TV. Obviously Germany has lost control and did nothing in the planning stage to stop these anarchists from coming to the city. This is not the summit Merkel dreamed of, but rather shows that she is living in a bubble to not realize what would happen.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 2:56 AM CET

Theo

Mentar
True.And the usual few German haters are dripping with envy-poor suckers.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 3:01 AM CET

Theo

Judith Weller
You’re right concerning the venue.Many Germans said the meeting should take place on an aircraft carrier.Maybe an American one. In democracies the army even an army with water pistols can’t be deployed inland against their own people and civilians. Only dictators do that. A lot of them American buddies. Sometimes I think Germany should have become a neutral country after the war like Austria and I think Finland.Stalin offered that.He pledged Germany would not be divided and not be part of the communist block.The biggest US airbase (Ramstein) in Europe wouldn’t be here neither would the deployment of drones in the Middle East be controlled from there. Wouldn’t that be nice.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 3:47 AM CET

Mentar

Judith Weller: Amazing ignorance.

First thing: The Bundeswehr must not be used for issues of the interior, this is police work. Once you use the army to contain or beat down demonstrations, you’re on a slippery slope. Think about it some.

Also, we’re a nation of law. How are you supposed to “stop this anarchists from coming to the city”? As long as they have committed no crimes yet, you cannot deny them the right to demonstrate. Even if you know that they’re going to riot with a high probability, you still cannot turn them away or even apprehend them for it.

Finally, “losing control”: If you have several thousand people hellbent on rioting, there is next to nothing you can do to really prevent it. Think of your own racial riots after police killing blacks. We had several of them in the recent past.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 5:27 AM CET

n

Germany forgot the real world exists. The decadent weak europeans forget the world is a volitile place

Posted on 7/8/17 | 9:28 AM CET

Roland

This is the reward for not taking these lefist terror groups seriously and letting them run amoc instead of putting them in jail. These thugs can just show up somewhere from across Europe and destroy a city.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 10:21 AM CET

Theo

n
You’re absolutely right here.I posted a comment somewhere in which I wrote exactly the same thing.But you must be fair.All Western countries ignored what was happening outside their world.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 10:26 AM CET

Stacy Hackney

Leadership is very hard, the best type of leadership anyway. My prayers are with her and with all leaders trying to help transition us to a more sustainable and kindler/gentler world.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 12:15 PM CET

tony

n

you are right. bearing in mind the treaty of rome you would think the rulers would realise the analogies with the collapse of the roman empire.

A weak currency. feeble government more interested in scoring points against each other than ruling. Decadent citizens and a depleted army and open borders

Posted on 7/8/17 | 1:39 PM CET

Tom Cullem

It’s called trying to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 4:22 PM CET

European

These G-20 meetings have always been an excercise in futility, and the common folk notices it. Riots have always accompannied such meetings, no matter where they take place.This means the common volk doesn´t trust the sincerity of such as a a forum for honest discussions. These meetings are no more than political showmanship.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 4:32 PM CET

ab

It is high time European Commission should take care of Germany as it reaches stage of some 3rd world country with news resembling more Nigeria or Pakistan than an European country.
Policing Germany would be a perfect first mission for planned new common European defense forces, just as it was organised in 1945, if Germany is unable to maintain respect for law and order by itself.

Posted on 7/8/17 | 5:20 PM CET

maciekimaciek

We know well, Politico, that as there is no AfD candidate danger this totalitarian leftard Schultz is your best puppet for German chancellor, and the left-lib Merkel is only the second best choice.

Posted on 7/9/17 | 12:57 AM CET

Truth

It is an uprising of the poor in Germany. Nearly ten million people have no job. Of course you will not find this information in officially cleaned up statistics of the federal government. There are six million people in Hartz4/ALG1 (long-term unemployment) and 3.8 million people in ALG 1 (short-time unemployment). The government is only talking of 2.4 million unemployed, so you have to dig a bit deeper to get the real numbers. You should also read page number 74 of the report to get the full picture. Look for key words such as “Unterbeschäftigung”. This is a new-speak word to hide the real number of unemployment. Interestingly, all the international media blindly copies the fake statistical statements without any further journalistic investigation. G20 provided an excellent opportunity to magnify all the existing problems in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Posted on 7/9/17 | 11:51 AM CET

Milton38

@Mentar
Before commenting you should perhaps listen to what the people on the ground, the underpaid and overworked, police have to say.
The police informed the politicians before the event about their views on what was going to happen. It did!
The police also informed the politicians what was needed to prevent it. It didn’t!
The comment of a policeman on the scene: ‘the protection of the citizens was of secondary importance to protecting the concert goers, the politicians’.
My personal view. The citizens of a country vote other citizens into a position of authority and responsibility. These elected citizens deserve no better protection than the citizens who voted them into a position of authority. I assure you that if their cars were burning, or their houses, the nonsense would stop immediately.
My second opinion and advice: Don’t trust what they say, ask for proof of previous promises kept. Treat them like an untrustworthy shopkeeper, demand proof of their honesty, demand surety.

Posted on 7/10/17 | 8:34 AM CET

Vishnou

@ab: are you having nightmares or simply sweet dreams?

Posted on 7/10/17 | 1:19 PM CET

MaxSceptic

I look forward to the G20 meeting in Moscow.

The Black Bloc would not be treated with kid gloves. But I doubt whether they would be stupid enough to go there. (But then, naturally, the protestors only ever protest against the West).

Posted on 7/10/17 | 2:06 PM CET

ab

@Vishnou
It is Merkel who is having not only horror dreams but even reality from hell as Politico reports.